Pursuant to Section 38(k) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a material loss review of First State
Bank, Sarasota, Florida (FSB) which failed on August 7, 2009. This memorandum is the
response of the Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection (DSC) to the OIG’s Draft
Report (Report) received on February 24, 2010.
The Report concludes FSB failed due to its Board of Directors (Board) and management not
implementing adequate controls to identify, measure, monitor, and control the risks associated
with FSB’s growth and the concentrations in commercial real estate (CRE) loans, and in
particular acquisition, development, and construction loans. Losses associated with deterioration
in FSB’s loan portfolio far exceeded the bank’s earnings and eroded capital. Bank capital was
further reduced by necessary writedowns to the bank’s deferred tax asset and recognition of a
termination fee associated with a repurchase agreement resulting from the bank’s capital falling
below the Well Capitalized level. The Florida Office of Financial Regulation closed FSB after
the bank became unable to find a suitable acquirer or raise sufficient capital to support the bank’s
operations and improve its capital position.
The Report concludes that the FDIC’s supervisory approach to FSB was reasonable and
consistent with policies and practices for an institution with FSB’s risk profile. The Report
further states that, with the benefit of hindsight, additional follow-up prior to the March 2008
examination may have been prudent to track management’s progress in correcting deficiencies
identified at the 2006 examination, at which time the bank was assigned a composite rating of 2.
We agree that it is important to follow-up on management’s efforts to correct deficiencies
identified in examinations. In troubled institutions, follow-up is conducted through monitoring
of compliance with enforcement actions. To ensure that follow-up is conducted on non-troubled
institutions as well, the FDIC recently issued examiner guidance that defines procedures for
ensuring that examiner concerns and recommendations are appropriately addressed by bank
management.
Thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on the Report.
.